In The Shadows
by Bladesh7
Summary: Mappy is kidnapped by the noritious and cruel Alley Cats, and Scrappy, his brother, is sent on a journey through the world's most corrupt city to find him and get revenge. DISCLAIMER: do not read this if you have a faint heart.
1. Memories

_**Prologue**_

"_Lost… I'm lost… I have no idea where I am…_ Misty shadows… Ghosts of my past…

_The slaughter! Oh the blood, don't look at it…_

_Mappy? Where are you? Mappy? Is that you? …_

_Mappy? … MAPPY?… MAPPY! … _

_No…He isn't there… Nobody's there… I'm falling…_

_falling… __falling… __falling…__"_

_**Memories**_

Scrappy´s eyes shot open and he woke with a start. "AAAAH!" he screamed as he sat up in his bed, "Oh, it was just a dream… a horrible dream…". He heard a thud from another room, and then the sound of running feet. Mappy must have heard me scream, he thought. Mappy burst through the door, panting. "Scrappy! Are you ok?" he gasped "It sounded like you were scared!"

"No, I just had a bad dream, little bro." Scrappy replied "Nothing to worry about". He looked around the small, messy apartment room and wondered if he could have, and probably would have had a better life if their parents were still around. After a few minutes of wondering he got out of bed and shuffled to the kitchen. Lightning clashed outside and rain pounded on the roof of his apartment. "Uuugh…" he groaned as he turned his kettle on to make some coffee "another stormy day...".

His thoughts drifted to when him and Mappy were living in the orphanage, and how the other kids always teased him and the teachers scowled at him.

_Ha ha! Scrappy is a whiney baby!_

The kids used to call him whiney baby because whenever he thought about his parents, he started to cry. Those days are over, he thought to himself, but still couldn't get rid of the thought that his emotional sickness wasn't gone. He began to drift off again.

_Scrappy will never have a future, he is always too busy fidgeting in class to learn anything._

The teachers knew this was not true, Scrappy was actually very smart indeed. But still they insisted that none of the children at the orphanage were going to grow up to get a good life.

Then he remembered the night he heard a scream of pain coming from the main hall of the orphanage. He took Mappy and they both hid behind a cupboard, masked in the shadows. He saw the whole thing, but hid the sight from Mappy's eyes. Shaded figures with weapons were tearing the place apart, setting alight pieces of furniture, ripping apart curtains and blankets, killing orphans and teachers and the headmaster of the place. Although he hated the people at the orphanage, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the gruesome sight. He remembered when they left, he went out of hiding and saw the destruction, and it was too much for him to bear. Blood splattered everywhere, mutilated bodies and body parts lying on the ground, and the headmaster was nailed to the wall with his clothes torn and his innards hanging out.

They escaped that night, the only survivors of the slaughter, until they found an alleyway which they thought was safe and fell, at last, into sleep.

With these thoughts he shuddered and tried to think about better things.

The morning after the massacre he was lying on a soft bed and wondered if it was all a dream. Still hazy, he saw a light brown fox with long orange hair who was about the same age as him, looking at him and then he wondered if he still was dreaming. "Hello?" She said in a soft, pretty voice. "Hello?" the voice came again, but this time, more real. He sat up in the bed and asked where he was.

She explained the whole story of how she found them lying in the alleyway, asleep, and carried them to her apartment block which her father owned. She said her name was Silky. A few days later, she convinced her father, Gruffy, to let them stay in the vacant apartment upstairs, of which he thanked them very kindly for being so helpful, and over a long time they had grown to be good friends.

When Scrappy had finished making his coffee he sat down next to the window and stared out at the distant dark clouds, his eyes full of blank hopelessness.

_If only our parents were still around, then we might have lived a happier life._ _I don't even know who they were, I was too young to remember…_

"Big bro?" Mappy's words pierced through his thoughts like a knife through warm butter.

"Hello? Anybody there?" he called again. "Yeah Mappy, what is it?" the wolf asked between sips of coffee. Mappy, who was plainly eager for something (due to the fact that he was jumping up and down excitedly), replied "can we go to Silky's place now? Please?"

Scrappy took another sip of coffee "Okay Mappy, we can go now."

Mappy was only a little baby when all this happened so he didn't know what had happened, which was a good thing, but even if he did know, he wouldn't understand.

Scrappy finished his coffee and put on his jacket hurriedly.

"C'mon Scrappy! Hurry up!" Mappy teased playfully.

"I'm coming!"

Mappy darted out the door and crashed down the stairs. That's my brother, he thought, always crashing into stuff. When Scrappy arrived, he knocked on Silky's door. She answered almost instantly.

"Hi Scrappy"

"Hi Silky, did Mappy go in already?"

"Yeah, he seems really exited."

"He always is."

Silky looked at Scrappy's thoughtful face and decided to ask what was wrong. "Scrappy, you look worried. What's wrong?"

Scrappy bit his lip. Should I tell her what I've been thinking, or not? He thought about this for a moment, and decided to share it with her.

"I was thinking about the orphanage, and the massacre. Recently, it's been troubling me."

Silky looked at her feet, remembering when Scrappy told her about it the first time. But before she had a chance to reply, Scrappy looked at his watch "Err… I have to go now or I'll be late for work" he said quickly. Silky sighed "Okay, I'll see you later." She closed the door slowly and Scrappy walked down the stairs and stepped outside.


	2. Just another day

The rain was cold outside as Scrappy walked along the path. Many people passed bye in their heated cars, relaxing in comfort and warmth as they drove along, while others trudged along the footpath, shivering just like him. A voice stirred in his mind, an evil voice, filled with malicious spite and anger. _This is how you will live for your whole miserable existence!_

_Look at you! Cold, poor, hungry! You're pathetic! Pathetic! You'll suffer… your puny, mortal life on this earth will vanquish like all the rest!_

_Dead! Gone! And nobody will care!_

The voice continued, in a much quieter and mysterious tone.

_Only your fate, will be much more gruesome!_

_There is nothing you can do to escape it!_

It seemed to feed him its anger, making him grow tight with rage.

"ARGH! QUIET!" he screamed at last to try to get rid of the voice.

People stopped and looked at him, staring with an array of different faces.

Surprised, shocked, scared, confused, nervous, angry and some even looked at him with disgust. A rich-looking purple chipmunk wearing a luscious red raincoat frilled with golden lace glared at him. "Hmmph! This poor soul obviously has some serious issues!" she remarked in an uppity voice.

"Yeah! He should be sent to a crazyhouse!" a green beaver agreed.

All Scrappy did was stare back at them, the rage slowly dying within him.

When Scrappy finally got to his work, Burger Palace, he saw the manager, Mr Reffy, pull up in his small red station wagon. Mr Reffy was very hotheaded and cruel to Scrappy, even though he was his best worker. He Hopped out of the car and stormed towards the startled wolf. "SCRAPPY!" he boomed "Why are you LATE!" Scrappy took a step back. "Sorry sir, I was tired and woke up later then usual." Here he goes again " A bit late? A BIT LATE! You're 6 minutes late!" Mr Reffy was always fussing about little things. "Okay sir, it won't happen again."

"It had better not!"

Mr Reffy stormed off towards the manager's office. That guy needs to chill out, Scrappy thought as he went into the staffroom to put on his uniform.

The rest of the day passed in a blur, and almost dreamlike. Serving customers, cooking burgers and chips, Mr Reffy yelling at him.

This isn't the best place to work, heck, I hate this place, but at least I get payed, he thought with distaste.

When he finally finished working he went to Mr Reffy to get his money. "There, all 59 dollars! Happy?" Mr Reffy said, but with a triumphant look on his face.

"What!" Scrappy burst out "but my weekly pay is 180 dollars!"

"Well, there were a few things this week that… disappointed me."

"But… but…"

"No buts about it!"

Scrappy groaned and grabbed the money, he knew that it wasn't about being late, to Mr Reffy he was just a pawn in a game of chess, being used and thought weak, so that he could be treated badly and nobody would care.

"That ASSHOLE will get what's coming to him, one day…" he murmured under his breath as he walked out the door.

"WHAT did you say!" Mr Reffy screamed from inside his office.

Scrappy walked back and stood outside the doorway. His boss looked like he was going to explode, veins popping out from his forehead and a million wrinkles crossed his face.

"I didn´t say anything!" Scrappy replied angrily.

"YES! You did!" Mr Reffy yelled, his face slowly turning purple. "Now come in!"

Unwillingly, Scrappy walked into the small, neatly arranged office.

Then the door slammed shut behind him and he heard the sound of a key locking it from the outside. He ran to the it and tried to pull it open but it wouldn't budge. "Shit!" Scrappy yelled as he turned towards the stocky bear again. "What the hell do you want from me!"

"Tell me what you said!"

"I'm telling you, I didn't say anything!"

Mr Reffy beckoned for him to move forward towards his desk.

"Come closer." He commanded in a stern voice, and he banged the desk with his fist. Scrappy instead, backed away. Mr Reffy got angrier and threw a cup of pencils at him. Scrappy ducked as the pencils hit the wall and fell to the ground.

The fuming bear rose from his chair and lunged at Scrappy, but instead of Scrappy crashing to the ground like he had wanted, the shocked wolf jumped out of the way leaving him to take the fall. Mr Reffy closed his eyes, opened them again slightly, saw Scrappy staring at him, then everything faded away to a blur and he blacked out.

Scrappy found a paperclip on the desk and, after several failures, managed to pick the lock. He ran out to where Silky and Mappy were waiting for him, out the front of Burger Palace. Mappy greeted him as he always had, jumpy and full of energy. Silky just said hi. "How was work?" she asked. "Mr Reffy ATTACKED me! And he didn't pay me all my money!" Scrappy replied angrily.

"What! He can't do that!"

"I know, but he hates me so he just makes up excuses so that he can get me in trouble, just so he can try to attack me!"

Scrappy and Silky were so caught up in their conversation that they didn't see the shadows rising up behind them.


End file.
